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Earlier today, the sports world was saddened to learn that Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron passed away at 86 years old. The former Atlanta Brave made sports — and cultural — history in 1974 when he hit his 715th career home run, breaking the then-record of 714 set by Babe Ruth.
As an African-American athlete, Hank Aaron had to suffer through racist insults and even death threats as he got closer and closer to breaking the record. Part of his place in sports history is the way he handled all of that with perseverance and class. Hank Aaron would go on to have a lengthy career with Turner Broadcasting (which owned the Braves) following his eventual retirement two years later, ending his career with 755 home runs.
Which now brings us to Hank Aaron's impact on pro wrestling history.
In 1992, Bill Watts was hired to replace Kip Frey as Executive Vice President of World Championship Wrestling. Now, we could spend an entire article on Watts' two-year reign in that position; but that's not the point.
Before taking on his role in WCW, Watts was not only a former wrestler himself, but also owned and ran the Universal Wrestling Federation, which was eventually bought by Jim Crockett Promotions, which in turn was bought by Ted Turner.
Hank Aaron lays the smack down on Watts
In 1994, Mark Madden brought an interview Watts did with PWTorch three years earlier — an interview that contained some pretty racist sounding stuff — to the attention of Hank Aaron. Essentially, Watts discussed that he felt that business owners should be able discriminate against others for any reason, including the color of their skin or their sexual orientation.
Mr. Aaron — who, at this point, was not only a baseball legend and a prominent civil rights figure, but also an important executive with Turner Broadcasting — petitioned to have Watts fired. Or Watts quit for other reasons, if you want to believe the word of a racist.
Either way, Watts was out and Ole Anderson was in, albeit temporarily. Not long after, Turner decided to go with a choice outside the box, Eric Bischoff. "Easy E" went on to fire Anderson, take WCW to Monday nights to compete with the WWF, and eventually change the entire wrestling business.
For those of us who are baseball fans, the passing of Hank Aaron is a solemn moment, and we send our most sincere condolences to his family and his fans. Fightful also had thoughtful earlier coverage of this very topic: (h/t to Fightful). There are many reasons not to look back to Bill Watts' time at the helm of WCW fondly, and his thoughts on people of color, and Aaron by extension, is certainly a major one.
Rest in peace, Hank Aaron.
